A Filipino mother who says her family had to “swim for our lives” as a storm surge tore through her home during a 2021 typhoon is among the survivors suing Shell in the UK, in a case that will likely test whether fossil fuel companies can be held liable for specific climate disasters.
The claim, lodged at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, involves over 100 Filipinos affected by Super Typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – which struck the country in December 2021, killing nearly 400 people and devastating coastal communities across the central Visayas, one of the three main island groups of the Philippines.
